Ever wonder what whiskey-industry insiders are drinking around the holidays? Us, too. Eat Like a Man's 12 Days of Whiskey asks the craft's most respected master distillers what bottles are on their holiday wish lists.

When you grow up in the house Jim Beam lived in, chances are you have a future ahead of you in the bourbon industry. In the case of Fred Noe, great-grandson of that legendary Beam and a seventh-generation distiller, this has meant doing a lot more than eking out a living in whiskey warehouses. Noe has been instrumental in developing Jim Beam's Small Batch Bourbon Collection: labels like Basil Hayden, Knob Creek, Baker's, and Booker's, which represent the brand's higher-proof, longer-aged, premium bourbon offerings. Since 2003, Noe has served as the company's master distiller, overseeing the entire Jim Beam operation.

You may be interested to know that when it comes to choosing a special holiday bottle, Fred Noe opts for a nice, highland Scotch.

"If I had to choose a whiskey outside the Beam family, then I would choose Dalmore Cigar Malt Scotch," says Noe. "Dalmore Cigar Malt has a robust, full flavor, and its finish is long and complex, which is enjoyable even for those who do not smoke cigars."

The Dalmore's Cigar Malt — now being bottled as Cigar Malt Reserve — contains whisky aged in former Oloroso sherry casks, bourbon barrels, and Cabernet Sauvignan barriques, but this expression doesn't offer an age statement. As the name suggests, the particular blend was made expressely for consumption with cigars. The flavors in the malt complement common tobacco aromas, such as chocolate, wood, earth, spice, and toffee.